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  4. The effect of feed spacer geometry on membrane performance and concentration polarisation based on 3D CFD simulations
 
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The effect of feed spacer geometry on membrane performance and concentration polarisation based on 3D CFD simulations
File(s)
3D CFD simulations_accepted version.pdf (1.98 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Gu, B
Adjiman, CS
Xu, XY
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Feed spacers are used in spiral wound reverse osmosis (RO) membrane modules to keep the membrane sheets apart as well as to enhance mixing. They are beneficial to membrane performance but at the expense of additional pressure loss. In this study, four types of feed spacer configurations are investigated, with a total of 20 geometric variations based on commercially available spacers and selected filament angles. The impact of feed spacer design on membrane performance is investigated by means of three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, where the solution-diffusion model is employed for water and solute transport through RO membranes. Numerical simulation results show that, for the operating and geometric conditions examined, fully woven spacers outperform other spacer configurations in mitigating concentration polarisation (CP). When designed with a mesh angle of 60°, fully woven spacers also deliver the highest water flux, although the associated pressure drops are slightly higher than their nonwoven counterparts. Middle layer geometries with a mesh angle of 30° produce the lowest water flux. On the other hand, spacers with a mesh angle of 90° show the lowest pressure drop among all the filament arrangements examined. Furthermore, the computational model presented here can also be used to predict membrane performance for a given feed spacer type and geometry.
Date Issued
2016-12-28
Date Acceptance
2016-12-28
Citation
Journal of Membrane Science, 2016, 527, pp.78-91
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/43497
DOI
https://www.dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2016.12.058
ISSN
1873-3123
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
78
End Page
91
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Membrane Science
Volume
527
Copyright Statement
© 2016, Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
BP International Limited
Grant Number
Order No. 75195/ICAM10 (IC)
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Physical Sciences
Engineering, Chemical
Polymer Science
Engineering
Reverse osmosis (RO)
Spiral wound module
Feed spacers
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
Membrane performance
REVERSE-OSMOSIS SYSTEMS
SPIRAL WOUND MODULES
MASS-TRANSFER
FILLED CHANNELS
FLUID-DYNAMICS
NARROW CHANNELS
PRESSURE-DROP
UNSTEADY-FLOW
PERMEATE FLUX
TRANSPORT
Chemical Engineering
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
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